Breaking News To Someone About A Coin They Own

Snap a picture if you can and maybe someone here can help with fair market value.
I personally think you do your friends a grave disservice if you don't let them know the facts.
The longer nothing gets done the less chance you get refunded, it may already be too late
without the better business bureau or a lawyer; both of which I would entertain in a heartbeat.

The chances of that happening are almost zero- the 1955P Lincoln has been heavily studied over the years because of 1955P-1DO-001. The $400 price is also very suspicious, an EF40 should sell for 3x that much. Contrary to popular opinion, B&M dealers are almost never experts in errors or die varieties- they tend to be generalists. I have seen some dealers make blatantly obvious errors in ID, either through lack of expertise or willful ignorance. That could very well be the case here and not overt fraud.

However, I think you have to accept the fact that these people have been ripped off either way, the question is what are you going to do about it?

Well that may be true, but we all know it can happen. If you remember a new B1 Reverse was found in a date that is highly scrutinized and collected by some highly regarded experts and None had been found in 45 years before that. Once this one was found, another one was added because people started paying closer attention to what they had in their collections. So it may be close to Zero, but definitely isn't unheard of.


That has to be the hardest part of the "job". telling someone they don't have what they thought they had, or the person who was left something from their dead relative that for years touted how rare and valuable the coin was and how if they ever needed the money they could sell and be living on easy street for the rest of their lives. These situations never end well because these people have been told all their lives its one thing by someone they trust and love and here is this stranger on a computer telling you another. Then you throw in the new collectors that have just made a major purchase they are so happy about only to come here to find out they have purchased a fake coin. Not only have you just dropped a bomb and pretty much broken the spirit of that person, you have also left a bad taste in his mouth about collecting coins in general. So yes this is the hardest part of the knowledge you share on a coin forum or with friends and family. But it is still a part of the job that has to be taken care of no matter how hard it is to do

1955D DDO-001

There's a Denver mintmark there. What you should see on that die is a doubled eye and a doubled 19 of the date. In EF grade that coin is a $10 item at best. In AU it shouldn't sell for more than $20.

Take a look on my site at the die and compare the coin...

http://www.coppercoins.com/lincoln/...ie_state=lds

I think you should tell your friends right away...thats very sad that there are dealers like that out there.

My local dealer here is not a numismatist by any stretch of the imagination. He's just been in the business a long time and knows by "gut feel" what a coin will grade. These guys see so few 1955 DD's nowadays I could see them get legitimately confused by a Machine Doubling example. It wouldn't surprise me if the dealer made an inadvertent purchase mistake and is now passing through that pain unknowingly at the point of sale. To be honest I didn't even really know about Machine Doubling until I started reading this forum.

please tell the truth about the fake coin

warm wishes.

The right thing to do, is to do what you can to make the situation right. If she is willing to drop hundreds on this coin, I highly suggest you point her in the right direction. That dealer sounds like he needs to be boycotted, aware or unaware of his mistake, he just sounds like a grinch of a man.